Cloud Scarlet
by Kristyle
Summary: Hermione has something on her mind, and she needs someone to talk to about it. Harry's in trouble, he's got to find something, and he wants Hermione to go with him, but can she ditch her studies to go with Harry. PLZ READ AND REVIEW!


**Disclaimer:** Everything belongs to J.K Rowling. If you sue you will get absolutely nothing. 

Chapter 1 

"So…has anyone got any questions?" Professor McGonagall asked the class of 7th year Gryffindors. 

Everyone turned expectantly to Hermione Granger sitting at the back of the class between her two best friends Harry Potter and Ron Weasely. She noticed that all eyes were on her, but she did not have a question and stared defiantly ahead of her ignoring everyone's gaze over her.

"What's wrong Hermione?" Ron whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Nothing's wrong!" Hermione snapped, not bothering to keep her voice down. Everyone turned round again to look at her. She smiled patronisingly at them, before taking out a quill and parchment from her bag. 

"So if there's no questions…" McGonagall said, the curiosity not escaping her voice, "copy down the paragraph from page 193 about Transformation in battle," and she sat down at her desk and surveyed the pupils who began writing hurriedly. 

"Are you sure you're all right Hermione? You'd never miss an opportunity to find out more stuff in lessons," Harry murmured his eyes still fixed firmly on his parchment but all his attention on Hermione. 

She shrugged lamely.

"I don't need to know anything else," she whispered, "now carry on with your work Harry. You don't want to fall behind. What with the NEWTs coming up," And she suddenly became temporarily deaf to either of the boys attempts to find out if she 'really was OK'.

Hermione opened her eyes. She was lying in her four-poster bed, the curtains draped lazily around each of the four bedposts. __

_'The sky at night is so dark it's almost black. Have you ever tried to see by starlight? Tiny droplets of light providing enough light to see by, as they shine across your face, illuminating it giving you an odd ghostly glow. Have you ever tried to read _Hogwarts: A History_ by starlight? The words so clear, the air so still the sky so black, the stars so bright'._

"Hermione?" a soft voice whispered in the night air, reverberating off the stonewalls and echoing in the chamber, " are you awake?" 

Hermione sniffed slightly and turned over towards where the voice was coming from. She saw Tiffany Stewarts, a muggle like herself, sitting upright in her bed, hugging her knees. Hermione had never really got to know Tiffany, she tended to hang around with the Ravenclawes most of her spare time. 

"Hello, Tiffany," Hermione groaned, pretending as though she had just been woken from a deep sleep. 

"Oh, sorry. Did I wake you? It looked as though your eyes were open when I went to get a glass of water," Tiffany said softly.

"It's Ok," Hermione yawned loudly, and suddenly felt very tired. She pulled herself up onto her elbows to look at Tiffany, who absentmindedly scratched at a spot on her duvet cover.

"How are you finding your NEWTs?" Hermione ventured at a conversation. Tiffany looked up, relieved she did not have to try and think of something to say. 

"They're a strain," she sighed, "I'm behind in nearly every topic but Muggle studies," 

"I dropped muggle studies. I didn't find it challenging it enough … oh! But of course some find it really interesting, I did until…" she looked shamefully at the jug of water next to the window, "It's good that you've got a strong subject, though. I don't think I have a particularly strong subject," Hermione mused on the thought for a moment.

"It's only because I'm a muggle though that I'm way ahead of everyone. But I want to be a Healer when I'm older. I'm fascinated by the ingenious wizarding methods of curing people. Nothing like the muggle way huh?"  

"I'd like to be a Healer when I'm older as well, isn't that weird? It seems like such a worth while job as well," Hermione whispered.

"That or the next Minister for Magic, but I doubt that would ever happen," they both chuckled as quietly as they could.

"So we must be taking the same subjects: Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts. I'm taking Astronomy as an extra NEWT, it's something else I'm quite interested in, and you're taking muggle studies as an extra,"

"Yeah. Those are my subjects. I could never quite handle Astronomy. Too many late nights. I like my sleep," she laughed suddenly, "I'm being quite hypocritical aren't I? Awake and all!" 

"How come I never see you in any of my classes? Where do you sit?" Hermione asked. 

"In a corner near the back most of the time. Honestly, I learn more from your questions than I do anything else! I notice you didn't ask a single question in Transfiguration. We were just wondering if something was the matter…" Tiffany looked hopefully at Hermione, and the stars' light shone on her face, shadowing her features and giving her an evil sort of leer instead of the friendly smile she was actually giving.

"It's nothing. Just stress from the NEWTs," Hermione lied.

"It's OK. I didn't expect you to tell me. Well…urm…night. Nice talking to you properly. I've been meaning to do this since 1st year, but I didn't think you'd be interested," And she turned over, facing away from Hermione and proceeded in falling asleep.

Hermione leant back against the headboard of her bed and listened to the silence of the night, broken occasionally by the hooting of an owl or something moving in the Forbidden Forest.

_'The light dances across the room; creating shadows amongst us, hiding what we don't want to see. The stars provide enough light for us to see what we like, but not enough to see what's right in front of our noses._'

I hope you like… I figured there has to be more than Hermione, Lavender and Pavarti in the Gryffindor girls' dorm so I invented one… Please review if you liked it. IT will end as a H/Hr, because I'm developing a liking towards this ship….love u loads!!! 

Kristyle

If u think u can handle this.


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